Britain has sent a parade of senior officials to China this year, part of a calculated charm offensive to thaw out relations with a country that looms large in a world order upended by the United States under President Trump.

英国今年已派一系列高级官员访问中国，这是为缓和英中关系而精心策划的魅力攻势的一部分。世界秩序已被特朗普总统领导下的美国颠覆，中国在这一新格局中扮演着举足轻重的角色。

But an emergency move by the British Parliament last weekend to take control of a Chinese-owned British steel mill has struck a discordant note amid all the diplomacy. And it could raise deeper questions about Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to cultivate warmer ties with China, at a time when Mr. Trump’s tariffs are sowing fears about protectionism and fraying trade agreements worldwide.

但英国议会上周末通过紧急立法接管了一家中资控股的英国钢铁厂，在所有这些外交活动中显得极不协调。而且，在特朗普的关税引发有关保护主义的担忧、开始瓦解世界各地的贸易协议的时候，此举可能会让人们对英国首相基尔·斯塔默改善对华关系的努力产生更深层次的疑问。

Britain acted to prevent the Chinese company that owns the plant, in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, from shutting down two blast furnaces, which could have shuttered the plant, cost 2,700 jobs and left Britain reliant on other countries for what it considers a strategically important commodity.

该钢铁厂位于林肯郡的斯肯索普镇，拥有这家钢铁厂的中资公司打算关闭最后两座高炉，这可能会导致工厂关门，英国议会用紧急立法阻止了中资公司的计划。钢铁厂关门将造成2700个工作岗位消失，让英国不得不依赖其他国家获取一种被其视为具有重要战略意义的大宗商品。

The government’s fruitless negotiations with the company, which refused subsidies to stay open, has prompted accusations of bad faith and even rumors of sabotage by the Chinese owner, which British officials rejected. But they are questioning whether other Chinese companies should be allowed to invest in sensitive industries.

英国政府与该中资公司的谈判毫无结果，它拒绝了英国政府为维持钢铁厂运行提供的补贴，引发了人们对其诚意的质疑，甚至出现了有关中国所有者蓄意破坏的传言。虽然英国官员对此予以否认，但人们正在提出问题：是否应该允许其他中国公司投资英国敏感行业。

“We have got to be clear about what is the sort of sector where actually we can promote and cooperate and ones, frankly, where we can’t,” Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told Sky News on Sunday. “I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.”

“我们必须明确哪些行业我们能真正推动合作，哪些行业，坦率地说，我们不能（允许合作），”英国商务大臣乔纳森·雷诺兹周日对天空新闻说。“就我个人而言，我不会让一家中国公司进入我们的钢铁行业。”

Mr. Reynolds said the Chinese company, Jingye, had refused to order vital raw materials, knowing that this would lead to the closure of the mill, Britain’s last big producer of crude steel, used in construction projects.

雷诺兹说，中国敬业集团已拒绝为钢铁厂订购关键原材料，他们知道这样做将导致钢铁厂关门，这是英国最后一家生产用于建筑项目的粗钢的大型钢铁厂。

On Monday, the government said it was confident it had secured the raw material needed to keep the furnaces burning, through two ships carrying iron ore and coking coal. But it has been left with a business that is reportedly losing 700,000 pounds, or $922,000, a day.

英国政府周一表示有信心让高炉继续运行，政府已通过两艘载有铁矿石和焦煤的船只获得了维持运行所需的原材料。但政府手中的这家公司据说每天亏损70万英镑（约合680万人民币）。

China on Monday warned Britain not to politicize the dispute. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, said the government should “refrain from turning economic and trade cooperation into political and security issues, lest it should undermine the confidence of Chinese companies.”

中国已在周一警告英国不要将有关工厂的争端政治化。中国外交部发言人林剑表示，英国政府应“避免将经贸合作政治化和泛安全化，以免影响中国企业赴英正常投资合作的信心”。

The dispute comes at an awkward moment for Mr. Starmer’s government. It had set out to improve a relationship that had frayed in recent years because of China’s crackdown in Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese cyberattacks that compromised the voting records of tens of millions of people.

对斯塔默的政府来说，这场争端发生在一个尴尬的时刻。此前，斯塔默的政府已着手改善英中关系，近年来，由于中国政府镇压香港的做法，以及对盗取数千万人投票记录的中国网络攻击的指控，两国关系出现了裂痕。

英国首相基尔·斯塔默（中）在斯肯索普附近的阿普尔比村礼堂与英国钢铁工人见面，摄于上周六。

Whatever the government’s misgivings about China’s human rights record or the security threat it may pose, it views better trade relations with China as an important ingredient in Britain’s economic growth and a hedge against the protectionist policies of the Trump administration.

尽管在中国的人权问题或中国可能构成的安全威胁上存在顾虑，但英国政府把改善与中国的贸易关系视为推动英国经济增长的重要因素，也是对冲特朗普政府保护主义政策的一种手段。

“The question is whether ministers want to see it for what it is or prefer to downplay it in order not to increase tension between the U.K. and China in a turbulent time,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. “I think the balance is that ministers will choose the latter course.”

“问题在于，部长们是愿意正视问题的本质，还是为了避免在动荡的时候加剧英中紧张关系而选择将其淡化，”伦敦大学亚非学院中国研究院主任曾锐生说。“我觉得，部长们最终将选择后者的可能性最大。”

The chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, traveled to Beijing in January to drum up Chinese investment. She endured japes after returning with only 600 million pounds, about $791 million, in commitments, but it was a conspicuous sign of the government’s new approach.

英国财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯已为寻求中国投资于今年1月访问了北京。虽然她只带回来了六亿英镑（约合58亿人民币）的投资承诺，并因此受到嘲讽，但这仍是政府新做法的一个明显标志。

Last week, the chief of the defense staff, Admiral Tony Radakin, the top official in the British armed forces, traveled to Beijing for meetings with Chinese officials to strengthen military-to-military communication. He also delivered an address at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University in Beijing.

上周，英国国防参谋长、武装部队最高将领托尼·拉达金海军上将访问了北京，为加强两军之间的沟通与中国官员举行了会谈。他还在北京的中国人民解放军国防大学发表演讲。

Such visits almost recall the days of David Cameron, the Conservative prime minister who declared a “golden era” of economic ties between Britain and China. In 2015, he took China’s president, Xi Jinping, out for a pint at a 16th-century pub. By 2020, relations had soured, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson kept Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, out of Britain’s 5G network.

这些访问不禁让人想起戴维·卡梅伦时代，这名保守党首相曾宣称英中两国的经济关系进入了“黄金时代”。卡梅伦曾在2015年请来访的中国国家主席习近平去一家16世纪的酒吧喝啤酒。到2020年时，两国关系出现了恶化，首相鲍里斯·约翰逊将中国电信设备巨头华为排除在了英国的5G网络之外。

Even amid the recent exchanges, there have been bumps. Last week, officials in Hong Kong denied entry to a Liberal Democratic member of Parliament, Wera Hobhouse. She is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which has criticized the threat to free speech in Hong Kong. China’s move came as a trade minister, Douglas Alexander, was on a visit to the city.

尽管在双方交流有所增加的情况下，两国关系仍存在一些波折。香港官员上周拒绝了英国议会的自由民主党议员韦拉·霍布豪斯入境。她是曾批评香港的言论自由受到威胁的“对华政策跨国议会联盟”成员。中国采取这一行动时，英国贸易大臣道格拉斯·亚历山大正在访问香港。

“I think the government will look upon it as an inconvenience,” Luke de Pulford, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, said of the dispute over the steel mill. “For a long time, there has been a dogma in the Treasury that China is going to rescue the British economy.”

“我觉得政府将把其视为一种麻烦，”卢克·德·普尔福德在谈到有关钢铁厂的争端时说，他是对华政策跨国议会联盟的执行主任。“财政部长期以来一直存在一种教条式的观念，那就是认为中国会拯救英国经济。”

But the government faces another delicate decision: whether to approve plans for China to construct a sprawling new embassy next to London’s financial district. Residents and other critics have opposed it, saying that its proximity to major banks and brokerage firms could facilitate spying.

但英国政府还面临着另一个棘手的决定：是否批准中国在伦敦的金融区附近建设规模庞大的新使馆计划。当地居民和其他批评者对此表示反对，称新使馆离主要的银行和经纪公司太近，为中国从事间谍活动提供了便利。

“I know it’s a diplomatic priority for the Chinese,” Mr. de Pulford said, noting that Mr. Xi had raised it with Mr. Starmer.

“我知道那是中国的外交优先事项，”德普尔福德说，并指出习近平已当面向斯塔默提出了这个问题。